Aileron neutral?

[Tbone]

Was fitting the wings on the -7 and need to set the ailerons in their "neutral" postition. At OSH this year I was asking one of the Van's boys how. He said to use a straight edge on the upper surface of the wing and follow trail with the aileron. I tried that and the aileron was about an inch or so above the flaps, which are already fitted. I did read to use the small holes in the rib to set the aileron. What, if any, is the "easy" way?

Regards,
Tbone
RV-7 QB

 

[Ironflight]

Tbone,

I made this real simple - I aligned the ailerons to neutral using the holes in the tip rib (way back when the wings were in the jig). I locked them in this position by building a little wooden form that held them there. I then aligned the tips and flaps to the ailerons. Eveyrthing looks and flies straight....

Paul

 

[godspeed]

easier way

I used the plans method , angle on the alignment holes and put lines down
the angle on each side of the hole all the way down to the ends, but what
helped alot was I made another one of those parts that aligns the belcrank
inside the wing (I don't know if the 7 has those but I figured they do) that locked the stick centered and put the both belcranks exactly centered(it removes any play in only having one of those parts on one wing.. made it
solid) then put the trailing alieron in between the lines in the angle lines, this was better only working on the smaller female adjustments and make sure the wire will not go through the holes in the smaller bearing on both ends.. (ie you small tube is proper length.. .. thats my story and I am stickin to it.. not sure if that helps..


Danny..

 

[robertahegy]

There was an airfoil pattern in the plans set that I used to cut out a cardboard guide. I used that to establish the flap and aileron positions. It actually fit the shape of the flaps when brought up to fully retracted position. It also works for checking the proper position of the wing tips.

Roberta

 

[cbnank]

I took a 48" wood ruler (looks like a yardstick only 48" long instead of 36"). You could cut a piece of plywood to do the same thing.

I marked a centerline down the ruler.

Drilled two holes on the centerline to match up with the tool holes in the outboard rib so one end of the ruler came aft to the aft end of the aileron. use a drill bit for an AN3 bolt size.

Put two AN3 bolts into those 2 holes in the ruler. Placed a straight edge on the top of the bolt shanks down to the end of the ruler and drew a line down to the end of the ruler. Then placed the straight edge on the bottom of the bolt shanks and drew another line down to the end of the ruler. This represents the thickness of the bolts down to the end of the ruler.

I put the 2 bolts into the ruler, then inserted them into the tool holes of the outboard wing rib. This left the two lines I drew to represent where the ailerons are to be adjusted to.

When I did that, I adjusted the aileron so the aft end of the aileron would match up perfectly between the 2 lines on the ruler, which represented the width of the AN3 screws.

I hope this helps. I apologise for the wordy directions.

 

[sportpilot]

guide plater

Tbone,
We are building a 9 I dont know if it is the same. Anyway this first picture is the guide plate (the silver plate) installed on the aileron bellcrank. You must also install the aileron push rod to make this adjustment.

Guide plate on the bellcrank

The next picture is the metal straight edge we uised. We inserted bolts in the tooling holes per the instructions and laid the straight edge along the bolts. With the guide plate installed and the straight edge lined up along the bolts and intersecting the aileron trailing edge exactly on the center, you adjust the push rod to correspond.

Straight edge we used to lay on the bolts

When your sure the alignment is correct and true, tighten the lock nuts on the pushrod. If you make the wood straight edge per instructions, you will have 2 lines running paralell that will overlap the trailing edge. We did that also to be sure. Happy building